Neurologist arrested on exposure charges

A Canfield doctor was arrested Thursday, accused of repeatedly exposing himself to schoolchildren at a North Side bus stop.

Dr. Robert Brocker Jr., 64, was booked into the Mahoning County jail on two second-degree misdemeanor counts of public indecency. He is expected to be arraigned today in municipal court.

Dr. Brocker was charged after police were called April 18 to Catalina and Margaret avenues, where a 15-year-old girl told them a man had come to the corner several times since school began in September, and would pull his pants down and expose his genitals. Sometimes the man would open the car door or wave the children over, reports said.

As police were on the scene, a car appeared that the witness said was driven by the man who had exposed himself. Police pulled it over, and Dr. Brocker was driving, reports said. Reports said his hands were trembling as he talked to police.

The witness police talked to was adamant that the man police pulled over was the man who had been exposing himself, reports said.

Officers let him go but referred the case to the juvenile division, which filed charges Wednesday after an investigation.

Lt. Brian Flynn, head of the juvenile division, said Dr. Brocker is charged only in the April incident for which the report was taken. He said he did not know if there were other victims or complaints, but he added there could be once the case is publicized.

He said a more serious charge was considered, but he said research done by investigators showed that the best charge is public indecency.

“We looked through the entire ORC [Ohio Revised Code], and the only thing that seemed to fit was public indecency,” Flynn said.

Dr. Brocker is a neurologist affiliated with St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, St. Joseph Warren Hospital and ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital, with 37 years of experience, according to the website webmd.com.

In 2008, court records show Dr. Brocker was charged in Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield with obstructing official business, also a second-degree misdemeanor, for an incident involving Canfield police in September 2007. The case was later dismissed, but there was no explanation given in court records for the dismissal.